My Movie List -I

I really wanted to talk about movies that I had liked in past six months or more but never got time. These also include movies that were made ages ago but I never saw them. Most of them merit an individual post. Don't know if that will happen in this lifetime. And you can blame that on hours that I spend watching movies.

Anyways, these are the movies that I would recommend, in no particular order.

1. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

2. Gone Baby Gone

3. There will be Blood

4. No country for Old men

5. The Constant Gardener

6. Sin City

7. V for Vendetta

8. Freedom Writers

9. Wall.E

10. Ratatouille 

11. Iron Man

12. City of God

13. The Motorcyles Diaries

14. The Inside Man

15. Aamir

16. A Wednesday

17. Haasil

18. Cindrella Man

19. The Dark Knight

20. Get Smart

21. 21

22. Cars

23. Little Miss Sunshine

24. Rock On!

25. Welcome to Sajjanpur !

26. Jaane tu ya Jaane na..

27. Wall Street

28. The Untouchables

29. Heat

30. The Bourne Ultimatum

Mera Joota Hain...

Iraaqi.

Its a plane, Its a bird, No, its a shoe!  

The pen is mightier than the sword. But the shoe is mightier than a pen.

A journalist in Iraq did not beat around the bush but beat the Bush with his Hush Puppies. 

I hope this act is contagious and like bird flu flies into our country.  

Hazaaro neta aise, har neta pe yeh joote nikle,

Bahut nikle yeh joote, magar phir bhi unka na dum nikle!

As they say to begin a journey of thousands miles, you need your shoes.

The greatest job on this earth...

For you, what is THE job on this earth? 

In Google ? Intel ? Microsoft? IAS officer?  

Doctor? Lawyer? Filmstar? Politician?

The one that pays well ? Lot of perks, recognitions? Job satisfaction, travelling aroun the world etc?  You may find answers in unexpected places.

On 26th November, also working were the hotel staff at Taj or Oberoi,  the measly paid Railway Policemen or almost at minimum wage paid train annoucners at CST.

Michael Pollack describes his experience with hospitality of Taj on that day. Do read it just in case you happen to visit Taj any time in future.

And if you happen to catch a local train at CST,  Vishnu Zende and Jillu Yadav may also help you.

Now coming back to your job, there is only person who can make it the greatest job on this earth. You. Don't tell me you were suprised with the answer. Oh c'mon.

Animal farm of India.

After terror, it was followed by horror which bordered on ridicule and insanity. Its like bander ke haath mein talwaar! The only difference is there are 540+ monkeys and a stray dog. 

RR Patil saab feels that he is SRK and he pays a price for his delusion. Bade desh mein ek aur chhota haadsa ho gaya!

Vilas Rao goes a step further and says "Wah Taj" with his filmi-son and RGV. RGV ki Aag burnt him too.

Naqvi can only see the powder and lipstick. When will he be shown the stick?

While Achutanandan picks up a dog fight. I think the Dhobi just found his new kutta.

Modi bashes up Karkare when he was alive and then Modi-fies his stand to pay his respect and 1 crore to Karkare's widow. 

Sharmila Thackeray sends SMSes that all the martyrs were Marathi Manoos. I guess she must have been tempted to blame the Northies this time too.

Last heard, there is infighting now after new CM of Maharashtra is chosen.

But don't worry, Shivraj Patil was changing his bandhgala when all of these happened. Luckily, his mouth is bandh too. For good now.

Funny, these are our leaders. Funnier, we chose them. Funniest, most of us didn't, we did not vote, right.

United in '03

I had written the draft around first week of August, 2008. Thought would add more to it. But don't feel like doing anymore. So I let it be. The only question is whether we will be united in '08 to fight our war?

7th August, 2008

The end credits start rolling. I continue staring at the screen. No one survived the crash on that day. United 93 flight "terminates" on HBO. In the other room, its another world. Mom and Dad share a joke. He chuckles, she laughs. The world is back to normal.

I am thousand of miles away today. That day, I was few hundred miles away.  A sense of grief, triumph, and relief interject each other. I may never know what made the passengers do the inevitable. I may never know how would I respond to such situation.

Change. Its time.

"How did it come to this?"

"So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?"

- Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"We should bomb Pakistan"

" We need a dictator"

"We should encounter all the so-called politicians and leaders"

"India is not safe, me off to some other better country"

These were all knee-jerk reactions. Reactions and not responses. Its been more than a week since the attack on Bombay. The anger has been given words, the hate against hate been expressed. Now, the real ordeal begins. 

I have been introspecting. I want things to change, for better.  I want to be an agent of change (not a Ray-ban wearing Agent Change, Mr Anderson!). Lighting candles, taking out protest march and voicing the angst is good. I am not denying that. It shows solidarity, it shows I care. 

Then what? How do I make myself accountable for the change? I want to internalize the process of this change. 

I have decided on 2-point steps that I want to follow now in my daily dealings.

1. F**k Mediocrity. The M word should not be my way of life.

2. Stay above board every time.

If I can get these right, I think it will be a good start. Rest, they will say in future, is history.

Reminds me of a sher that sums up my thoughts.

Khudi ko kar buland itna, 

ki har taqdeer likhne se pehle,

Khuda khud bande se yeh puche,

bata teri raza kya hain!